Blue Jays: Would management take on bad contracts to gain prospects?

For a losing team in the age of modern baseball, it’s not always about winning a trade for today’s team, but rather finding creative ways to make your team better for the future.

It’s safe to say that the trend of signing 30 plus year-old players to long-term contracts may be coming to an end in baseball. Yet, many of these types of contracts remain laid over from past general managers botched decisions.

The Blue Jays are positioned well to eat some salary if the right prospects were to be included in a trade, so it could be plausible that an expensive aging veteran could find his way onto the Blue Jays roster come this trade season.

Currently, the Blue Jays payroll of $115 million sits well below the $164 million spent last season, so management could afford to add a few bad contracts if they wanted to. When you consider that the Blue Jays will likely be sellers for its pitchers this trade deadline, which is an area already on shaky footing ground with injuries and lack of reserves, it makes it entirely possible that the Blue Jays could bring on some unfavourable contracts as a means of landing top-tier pitching prospects from competing teams. That type of move could help secure their rotation for contention years in the future, which might be worth the short term pain in eating salary.

Here is a look at some bad MLB contracts the Blue Jays may consider taking on if the right prospects were included.

Johnny Cueto

When the Toronto Blue Jays traded Kevin Pillar to the San Francisco Giants, it came as a shock to many fans in Blue Jays nation. What would be even more shocking would be if the Blue Jays were to take on injured veteran pitcher Johnny Cueto. Cueto is currently rehabbing from the Tommy John surgery he received last August, and while it’s still possible that he plays sometime in September this season, it’s arguably just as likely that he will not play at all in 2019.

The Giants would probably be interested in moving on from the 2-time all-star if they could find a suitable partner. Cueto is under contract for two more years at a costly 21 million per season. Also, he has a five million dollar buy out for 2022. There is no question that for any team willing to take on Cueto’s contract, they will expect a large portion paid by the Giants, and the Blue Jays front office would be no different in expecting that.

However, If the Blue Jays can get a healthy Johnny Cueto for 10 million a season, plus one or more prospects in return, I can see them being interested in that type of deal. Additionally, If the Blue Jays do end up moving on from Marcus Stroman or Aaron Sanchez this season, there will still be a need for a starter both this year and next on the roster. Plus then if the Blue Jays return to contention in 2021, having a healthy Johnny Cueto as a fifth starter at 10 million dollars might work out to be a good deal in the end, although the prospect pieces would be more important.

Brett Cecil

Remember when Brett Cecil was the belle of the ball for free agent relief pitchers in 2016? Well, things haven’t really worked out so well for Brett since signing with the St Louis Cardinals.

His first season in 2017 was status quo for what we remember of Cecil when he played for the Blue Jays, pitching to a 3.88 ERA over 67 innings for the Cardinals. But then last year Brett battled injuries and posted a bloated 6.89 ERA over 32.2 innings pitched.

Cecil will make 7.5 million this season, and another seven next season, a high price for a recently ineffective relief pitcher. Add into the fact that he has not pitched a game this season for the Cardinals due to a left wrist surgery for carpal tunnel and numbness in his fingers, and he becomes a bit of a burden for a team trying to compete for the postseason.

It’s possible the Cardinals could look towards Toronto’s bullpen for help shoring up their pitchers for a pursuit of the postseason. I can’t think of many teams that would be willing to take on Cecil’s contract. But for the right prospects, and parts of his salary paid, I could see Blue Jays management willing to take a look to see if Pete Walker may be able to fix the issues that have been plaguing Brett since 2017.

The Cardinals seem intent on competing in 2019, so for them to keep up with the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers, then they will need to be creative in how they are able to acquire the talent to do so.

Jason Kipnis

In hindsight, the Cleveland Indians made a mistake when they signed Jason Kipnis to a 6-year backloaded contract in 2014. At the time backloaded contracts were all the rage, but we now know that these deals very rarely stand the test of time, and in the new age of MLB I don’t know that we’ll see as many of those agreements going forward.

Kipnis is making 14.5 million this season with a 2.5 million buyout in 2020, but his .214 batting average is not providing the tribe with value on their dollar. Yet seemingly against the odds, the Cleveland Indians are playing well in 2019 in spite of Kipnis’ poor performance. They are currently in second place in the NL central, though they are back a full 10 games from the Minnesota Twins. Cleveland is sitting in a wildcard spot at the moment, so if they can somehow stay the course, it’s possible that they could look to make some low-cost acquisitions.

It’s possible that the Cleveland connection could strike again one more time if they were looking to unload Jason Kipnis to the Jays. First, Kipnis’ contract would only affect Toronto this season, which they won’t be competing in any way. Second, if the Jays were to try to land more prospects in the deal, they could also theoretically send back one of either Eric Sogard or Freddy Galvis, who if both can keep their play up, could offer Cleveland a better statistical player for less money than Kipnis.

There’s no doubt that Cleveland has been looking to save money, as even their elite pitchers like Trevor Bauer and Corey Kluber have been in trade rumours over the last 12 months. Kipnis wouldn’t provide huge savings, but if the Blue Jays were willing to eat some of his contract in order to acquire better prospect capital, there could be a fit here.

Crazier things have happened

Who knows how far the Blue Jays management would be willing to go in securing prospects for the future. Since it’s Rogers money we are talking about, I personally don’t mind at all what contracts they have to pay for this season or next so long as it brings in some youth with it.

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The Blue Jays are desperately thin at the pitching position reaching the major league level, and so it could take being creative in how they gain the needed extra arms.

There are some even worse contracts than the ones listed here like the infamous Albert Pujols Anaheim Angels contract at 29 and 30 million through the 2021 season.

Do I think the Blue Jays will take on that magnitude of bad contract? No.

Yet, if the Angels were serious about ridding themselves of Pujols and offered up their top two prospects outfielder Jo Adell, and pitcher Griffin Canning, and paid 2/3 of Pujols contract, I mean.. I may listen.

Some other of the Worst current deals in MLB:

Chris Davis  (four years $92 million)

Miguel Cabrera (five years $154 million)

Eric Hosmer (seven years $123 million)

I’d probably listen to any contract dump deals, as it seems that we may be waiting until at least 2021 for our next real window of contention. Next season’s payroll is remarkably low, so the Blue Jays could theoretically afford to take on some money to gain the valuable starting pitchers that they will need when they are ready to compete.